Traditional electrical data transmissions are limited when transmitting large amounts of data at the high data rates required by many data centers. Optical data transmission, in which optical signals can be modulated and encoded with information for data transfer, has emerged as a viable alternative to electrical data transmission in these circumstances. Accordingly, various optical technologies have been developed to accommodate transmission and switching of data by optical signals. For example, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-based switches use mirrors to switch the optical signals. However, these MEMS-based switches exhibit a slow switching time, making the MEMS-based switches impractical for real-time reconfiguration of routes for the transmission of large data sizes at high data rates. Additionally, MEMS-based switches are both difficult and expensive to fabricate.